This paper describes the N.I.G.E. Machine, a user-expandable micro-computer system that runs on an FPGA development board and is designed speci cally for the rapid prototyping of experimental scienti c hardware or other devices. The key components of the system include a stack-based softcore CPU optimized for embedded control, a FORTH software environment, and a exible digital logic layer that ...

A novel hardware architecture for memetic vector quantizer (VQ) design is presented in this paper. The architecture uses steady-state genetic algorithm (GA) for global search, and C-means algorithm for local refinement. It adopts a shift register based circuit for accelerating mutation and crossover operations for steady state GA operations. It also uses a pipeline architecture for the hardware...

A novel parallel memetic algorithm (MA) architecture for the design of vector quantizers is presented in this paper. The architecture contains a number of modules operating memetic optimization concurrently. Each module uses steady-state genetic algorithm (GA) for global search, and K-means algorithm for local refinement. A shift register based circuit for accelerating mutation and crossover op...

Random arrangements of points in the plane, interacting only through a simple hardcore exclusion, are considered. An intensity parameter controls the average density of arrangements, in analogy with the Poisson point process. It is proved that, at high intensity, an infinite connected cluster of excluded volume appears almost surely.

This paper describes embedded system for the international small-sized league RoboCub soccer team. The constraint of robot size and the range of robot functions imply a complex design of a high performance system in a very small package. The main feature of the design is the integration of multiple functions including a softcore processor into a single Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) devi...

Register files (RF) are known to consume about 20% of the power inside a processor. Embedded systems, due to area and timing constraints, generally have small register files, which can cause significant register pressure. This work explores how having a map-table or a map-vector can decrease the power dissipation in the processor. The distribution of register writes and sharing of commonly occu...

We construct stable configurations of n overlapping discs of radius r in a unit square, with r = O(1/n). By a result of Diaconis, Lebeau, and Michel, this result is best possible, up to a constant factor. A consequence is that the Metropolis algorithm, a well-studied Markov chain on the hardcore model, is not irreducible in this range of parame-

We obtain estimates on the exponential rate of decay of the relative entropy from equilibrium for Markov processes with a non-local infinitesimal generator. We adapt some of the ideas coming from the Bakry–Emery approach to this setting. In particular, we obtain volume-independent lower bounds for the Glauber dynamics of interacting point particles and for various classes of hardcore models.